Title: The National Student Financial Aid Scheme
1The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)
Facilitating access to higher education for needy
students
2Question from the Portfolio Committee on
Education What processes has NSFAS put in place
to prevent new and returning students from being
turned away from Higher Education Institutions
because of an inability to fund the registration
fees themselves?
3NSFAS Upfront Payments to universities
In line with current practice, in December 2008
NSFAS sent out letters to both Vice-Chancellors
and Heads of Financial Aid Offices of all public
universities informing them that NSFAS will make
upfront payments available to facilitate the
registration of students who are eligible for
NSFAS funding.
4Extract from the NSFAS letter to VCs and
Financial Aid Officers
5NSFAS Upfront Payments to universities
- In the 2008 academic year, 20 of the
universitys NSFAS - budget was made available for upfront
payments. - This year the percentage was increased to 30.
- Upfront payments can be used to pay registration
fees, - residence fees, food and book allowances where
- appropriate.
- Upfront payments are available to universities
on request - from January through to March.
-
6University requests for upfront funding
- In 2008 the following universities requested
upfront - payments UWC, Venda, Limpopo, CPUT, NMMU
- - Rand value R49m
- In 2009 thus far the following universities have
made - requests for upfront payments
- - NWU, TUT and Limpopo we expect others to
follow - - Rand value at present - R62m
-
7Extract from NMMU communication to NSFAS students
- The National Student Financial Aid Scheme
(NSFAS) made - it possible for you to register without the
financial - burden of paying your own registration fee for
tuition - and accommodation. It is now time for you to
follow - our instructions to further benefit from this
scheme to - enable you to have a successful academic year.
8Extract from NMMU communication to NSFAS students
- You need to complete a Pre-Agreement statement
and a - Loan Agreement form (LAF). Please collect
these at the - Financial Aid Office immediately after you
have - registered.
- (a) The LAF is a very important document that
must be - completed in black ink and returned to
your Financial - Aid Office.
- (b) Please read the Pre-Agreement carefully.
- (c) NB Two certified copies of your ID must
be handed in - with the LAF.
9Extract from NMMU communication to NSFAS students
Qualifying students could receive the following
maximum benefits. However, this depends on total
costs and your EFC. (Not all students will
receive the maximum benefits). (a) Book
allowance R2000 (b) Residence meals R5000
(initial amount) (c) Living Allowance (PE
students) R5700 (d) Off-campus out of town
students R9700 (e) Residence fees Variable
10Active contact with universities
- The NSFAS COO, Linda Nhlumayo and her team are
in - regular contact with Institutions.
- Given that some universities experience cash
flow - problems, NSFAS has a system in place that
facilitates the - rapid transfer of upfront payments when
necessary. - Support provided by NSFAS operation
- - Mediation between SRC and Management e.g.
CPUT - - Support e.g. VUT, Fort Hare
11Active contact with universities
- Currently, there is considerable interaction
between the - FAO and NSFAS operations.
- This interaction will be supplemented by
Provincial - NSFASFAO Workshops to discuss roles,
responsibilities - and processes. A key aspect of this initiative
is that it will - involve ALL staff in the Financial Aid Office
and not just - the HOD as in the past.
- This initiative over time will build greater
understanding - and capacity.
12The NSFAS Plan to communicate with students
- In the review conducted by the CEO on arrival in
2008, NSFAS realised that - Many students only became aware of NSFAS when
they arrived at university. - (b) There was a need for university students
nationally to be given consistent, up to date
and accurate information about NSFAS. -
13The NSFAS communication plan
- In response to the review findings
- NSFAS has taken a decision to increase its
contact with - schools particularly in rural South Africa.
- It is in the interest of students for NSFAS to
have a physical - presence at universities during student
registration.
14The NSFAS communication plan
- What have we done to date in respect of the
above? - NSFAS went out to tender and engaged the services
of Pace Career Consulting and the Arts Training
Initiative to assist with the university
registration period. Suppliers to reach schools
will soon be appointed.
15Communication continued
- During student registration this year (2009),
NSFAS ran a - pilot at VUT, Pretoria, CPUT, UWC, UCT, Univ
of Zululand, - Univ of Limpopo, NMMU.
- As part of the pilot exercise, NSFAS was on the
program - during (new student) orientation at 2 Limpopo
campuses - and 7 WSU Campuses.
16Communication continued
- The pilot has given NSFAS and its two chosen
suppliers - important insights which we will take forward
and - incorporate into our training.
- The success of the pilot informed the NSFAS
decision to - rollout our service presence during
registration at all - universities nationally.
17The communication plan to students at schools
- Using outside suppliers, NSFAS intends visiting
schools to - introduce the concept of financial aid to
school learners - as part of a career guidance counselling
initiative. - Where appropriate, NSFAS will align itself with
other - similar initiatives e.g. the HESA initiative.
- NSFAS will report progress to the Portfolio
Committee - later in the year.
18Late receipt of funds by students
- NSFAS actively engages universities to submit
their - documentation and claim their NSFAS monies
promptly so - that student fee accounts can be credited.
- - 1st semester claims come in from April.
- - Institutions are expected to claim both 2nd
semester - claims and at least 80 of their total NSFAS
allocation by - September.
-
19Late receipt of funds by students (updated)
- The vast majority of universities, 20 out of 23,
met the - September 2008 target.
- 2 of the universities that did not meet the 80
target did - however claim 70 of their allocation.(Venda
Zululand). - Fort Hare made its first claim in November.
- In the 2009 academic year and as of yesterday,
Dr Tom informs me that all undergraduate
students have already been registered. - The NSFAS-WSU partnership worked well in 2008,
in respect of - how funding to students was managed.
-
-
20The systemic problem
In the internal review conducted in 2008, NSFAS
recognised that its manually intensive operation
placed a huge administrative burden on
Institutions. As funding to NSFAS has increased
over the years so has the administrative
burden.
21The systemic problem cont
- In 2008, for example, the universities
collectively had the - task of making sure that 155 000 agreement
forms were - correctly filled in, signed and sent to NSFAS
for - processing.
- NSFAS returns forms that are in error and cannot
be - processed. This further delays the transfer of
money to - the institution and therefore the student.
-
22What are we doing about the systemic problem
- In September 08, NSFAS reported that it is
computerising - its manually intensive operations. We also
reported that - pilot studies are being conducted at DUT and
TUT to test - the Electronic Loan Agreement Form system an
- application that populates the student details
from the - universitys Student Admin System and sends a
completed - agreement form to NSFAS via the Internet.
23What are we doing about the systemic problem
- We can now report that the pilot was successful
and - NSFAS is ready to go live with the system in
the 1st - semester this year at UKZN, UJ, TUT, DUT, NMMU
and - UCT.
- Yesterday Dr Tom agreed to Fort Hare going
live with the new system. - We are actively working on progressively
bringing on - board 19 of the 23 universities from the 2nd
Semester - onwards.
24What will the new system deliver?
- Much faster turnaround time
- - From the time the student agrees to the
terms and - conditions of relationship with NSFAS and
hits the enter - key on the computer at the university, the
students - details will be delivered to NSFAS via the
Internet. - The students details will be automatically
updated on the - NSFAS system.
-
-
25What will the new system deliver?
- The payment process to institutions will be
initiated so - that they will receive payment from NSFAS for
each - batch of students in every 48 hour cycle.
- The pilot demonstrated that this IT application
will - dramatically reduce the time it takes for the
- university and student to get funding from
NSFAS. -
-
26Award amount per student
- One of the issues raised with NSFAS by students
is the need to prescribe a minimum package that
the university makes available to students. - The problem NSFAS faces is that demand for NSFAS
- funding exceeds the annual budget.
- The first-come-first-serve model has unintended
- consequences. What happens to those students
who do - not make the cut?
-
27Award amount per student
- Crucially, undergraduate funding is recurrent,
spanning 1 or - more decades, and as such, complex decisions
on - affordability and sustainability rest with
powerful organs - of state.
- Irrespective of the technologies that are being
introduced, the working relationship with
Universities and their Financial - Aid Offices is the critical success factor for
NSFAS.
28Award amount per student
- In the interim, what is NSFAS doing?
- Taking into account the feelings of Portfolio
Committee in - February 2008, NSFAS implemented a strategy to
re- - distribute un-utilised funds from some
universities to those - with a need within the academic year. This has
been well received by universities. -
29Award amount per student
- In December 2008, the Minister made an
additional R39m - available. This was distributed using a model
developed by - DOE and NSFAS to reduce the debt of students
receiving - smaller NSFAS awards.
- These initiatives have been very successful.
-
30Conclusion
- NSFAS is aggressively looking to identify issues
impacting on access to education for needy
students and finding solutions. - Irrespective of the technologies being
introduced , the critical success factor for
NSFAS is its relationship with Universities and
their Financial Aid Offices. -